More of an Attitude than a Custom Tool

[rgsparber]

As I get older, I've realized that I can't trust my memory. This is especially true for tasks that I perform infrequently. Such is the case when mixing Roundup in my sprayer. This is how I solved this old man problem.

If you are interested, please see

http://rick.sparber.org/MOAA.pdf


Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.


Thanks,

Rick

[Toolmaker51]

Marking sprayer canister with the volume of ingredients is all kind of efficient, even conserving the chemical. You could mark the chemical can too, each subtracted amount to predict last available ounces.
Mixing up url's isn't an issue, all your posts are useful Rick. We geezers need to stick together...I did the same thing with my comments. Lol

[Frank S]

Actually there could be a special search category named geezer's solutions to life's daily adventures

[Paul Jones]

Rick,

I had a good laugh when I read "That ratio is buried deep in the pamphlet stuck to the side of the bottle". I am not sure why the makers of Roundup® use super fine print, make us search for the information and make it even harder by gluing the instruction pages together. I have a four gallon backpack sprayer with an electric powered pump and rechargeable 12VDC gel cell. I use a Roundup® concentrate and typically spray 64 to 72 gallons in the June and July timeframe after initially brush clearing tall weeds down in our box canyon behind our house. The box canyon ground slopes about 40 to 45 degrees (and a lot more in some parts) so this geezer gets a great workout but worth it for wildfire protection.

Not to make the mixing of Roundup® concentrate too confusing but there are at least two types of the weed killer concentrate. One is Roundup® Weed & Grass Killer Super Concentrate and typically uses 2.5 oz/gallon for a strong mixture and this is the one I use. The other is Roundup® Weed & Grass Killer Concentrate Plus and typically uses 3.0 oz/gallon for most weeds. That is probably the one Rick is using? It is a subtle difference but a big deal when I am mixing 60 to 70 gallons in one season and the super concentrate is pretty expensive.

Regards,

Paul

[Jon]

This is more clever than it may appear at first. I've been using a formal productivity system for over 10 years now (the one I like is called GTD). When I purchase an item, I'll download its manual from the internet, or scan in the paper version if I can't find it online. The system hinges in part on the realization that we are terrible at storing information just like this - holding a ratio in your memory for once-yearly use. And that once you devote a small portion of your mind to this task of rote memorization, it detracts from your ability to perform higher cognitive functions like ideation or critical thinking.

I have noticed that as I practiced the habit of immediately storing such information for future retrieval, I abandoned the practice of rote memorization, and my ability to remember things like this has deteriorated. We do know that memory decreases with age, but there is also something to be said for the fact that, as we mature, we develop superior systems for storing and retrieving information, and thus reduce our dependency on rote memory.

[mklotz]

Using the computer as a virtual filing cabinet has other benefits as well...

Miniscule text can be magnified without the need for optics
Storage rearrangement and reordering is no more difficult than dragging and dropping icons
With cut and paste, the creation of hard copy "cheat sheets" is a mere bagatelle
No matter how much material you keep in your virtual filing cabinet, it never takes up more office space than your computer

and the most important...

The computer can do the searching for you.

All my stuff of this description is stored in one giant file on my desktop. Of course, all this file contains is a bunch of sub-files for each topic. The advantage of this for me is that, at backup time, I can simply drag this file icon over to the icon for the 1 TB exterior hard disk and drop it - backup of that material is done. Photographs are stored and backed in a similar manner. A backup of all the files I may have modified in the past week takes five to ten minutes.

One of the handiest files in my collection is the "woist" (German for Wo ist? (Where is it?)) file, With a small shop, stuff gets stored where there is space, not necessarily in the most logical location. When that happens, I make a note in woist.txt. Next year when I want to retrieve that item, a quick search in woist.txt locates it without the need to pick through everything in the shop.

[mklotz]

I should mention that, if you're going to use your computer as a surrogate memory, YOU BETTER HAVE AND REGULARLY USE A MULTIPLE MODE BACKUP REGIMEN.

My system works for me so I'll describe it here for the benefit of people who wish to know what I mean by the ALL CAPS shouting above. I'm not suggesting readers should adopt my system. Make up your own regimen; it's more important that you backup regularly than the exact details of how and when you perform backups.

If I happen to invest a lot of time in a composition or program I'm working, I'll copy it immediately to the external hard drive that serves as my first level backup. Otherwise, my computerized calendar (Mozilla Lightning) reminds me weekly to run the two anti-virus programs and then copy bookmarks and address books to their backup files after which all the files containing my stuff are copied to the external drive. The external drive lets me access the most recent version (no older than a week) without having to dig out thumb drives and DVDs (explained below).

Once a month I'm reminded to copy all my files to a thumb drive which is hidden in a location in the house unlikely to be searched by burglars. Thus even if the computer, external drive, and the DVDs are stolen, the information is recoverable.

Once every three months I'm reminded to dump everything onto DVDs. This provides backups in a third medium as well as providing a long term memory of what my files looked like over time. If a critical file gets accidentally deleted, I can recover from the DVDs, although, thankfully, I've never had to do that. If you're worried about fires, earthquakes or tsunamis, store the DVDs in a secure physical location removed from your residence.

[grandviewdoug]

Perfect! Let's get started...I see a book in your near future by that name!

[Jon]

FWIW, I "went paperless" years ago. Bought this scanner, and scanned in everything I had. The scanner earned its reputation and steep price; it can whisk through a stack of papers, do double-sided scans, and does a good job of fixing digital images composed from crinkled paper, as long as you regularly clean the contact wheels. I only kept hard copies of official paper documents or sentimental stuff. Now when I receive paper, I just chuck it in my inbox, and then do a once-weekly scan.

Ironically, I will still print something out on paper so that I can reference it more readily, but it's no longer my long-term storage medium.

[Frank S]

It seams that every few days I receive an ad wanting me to store my data on the cloud I may be just an old sometimes narrow minded retired industrial design engineer with sometimes failing comprehensive communications skills but I simply cannot bring myself to buying a subscription to something like that
First off I cannot get my thinking around having to pay to store my stuff. TO me that is akin to having a house full of furniture you really don't want to get rid of but do not have a good way to store it in a protected manor so you put it in a mini storage eventually the monthly/ yearly fees amount to more than the stuff was worth, it having a value only to you and not worth selling.
Second I visualize those cloud type storage mediums as nothing more than a place for unscrupulous persons to snoop around in your private affairs
And thirdly technology is constantly on the more, sometimes for the better sometimes not as in the constantly changing operating systems of computers. A lot of things we have done on older computers if we did not upgrade our data with each software change much of that would be lost
I do not know what the ultimate panacea would be for preserving our treasured data would be for right now I try to do about the same as Marv does but admittedly not on as regular or regimented regime as he says he has. because currently I have 2 500 or 750 GB 2.5" hard drives that I cannot get to boot up and no way of knowing how many millions of photos drawings or documents I might have on them that are not stored on another Media